Aldermen Get Involved with Proposed Relocation of Railyard to Bridgeport

The City Council put a resolution on the table Wednesday asking Amtrak to stop and show its work. Specifically: pause the railyard project until the full environmental studies are public. Our neighbors in Bridgeport and Chinatown have been saying this at meetings for a month, and now it is on paper downtown.

Here is the part that is ours. Amtrak wants to move its Chicago maintenance and inspection work out of the 14th Street Coach Yard, the one you walk over on the Roosevelt bridge, and down to the Canal Street Yard at 436 W. 25th Place. Fifty-seven acres, Cermak down to 38th, Canal to Stewart. The feds put up to $572 million behind it in August, plus $87 million for viaducts, and the target is 2028. The environmental sign-off was a categorical exclusion, which is the light-touch version, and that is exactly the thing the alders are poking at.

The developer is Canal Edge, which is Justin Ishbia's firm. Ishbia has already published renderings for a White Sox ballpark on the land the 14th Street yard sits on today.

So: the biggest open question about what the Sloop looks like in 2035 is currently being argued three miles south of us. What do you want on that yard?

Source credit: WTTW, with project details from Amtrak's own Midwest Maintenance Facility site and additional reporting from Chronicle Media. Crain's Chicago Business and Block Club Chicago also covered the resolution.

Want to Spend a November Night on the Soldier Field Concourse?

Covenant House Illinois is running its Sleep Out at Soldier Field on Thursday, November 19, and it is exactly what it sounds like. You bring a sleeping bag, you spend the night outdoors on the Miller Lite Midway concourse, and you raise money for shelter, meals, school and job training for kids who do not have any of that.

It is open to regular people, not only corporate teams, though corporate teams are clearly who the pitch is built for. Covenant House says the November round runs at six venues nationally, including Yankee Stadium and Gillette Stadium, and should bring in more than $16 million.

Two things we could not find out for you: whether there is a fundraising minimum to sign up, and whether there is a registration deadline. Both live on the national registration site, so check before you commit your Thursday night.

We have thoughts about November on the lakefront. Nobody sleeping out there is confused about that, which is more or less the point.

Anybody down here done one before? Tell us how cold cold gets.

Source credit: Covenant House Illinois and Covenant House International's own announcement. We found the story via Block Club Chicago.

Reserv's License Hearing Is Tomorrow (Friday Sept 17th)

Marking your calendar on one we have been following. The hearing on whether Reserv keeps its liquor license is set for Friday, September 18.

The catch-up, if you missed it: after the latest incident at 744 S. Dearborn, the city ordered the bar to stop playing live music and stop charging people to get in. CBS Chicago reported that the local alderman's recommendation is that the license be revoked. The owner told CBS that the bar is something other than that one night.

We do not have a dog in this fight, and we have heard from neighbors on both sides of it. What we will say is that 744 S. Dearborn is a storefront on a block that does not have storefronts to spare. 

Friday, then.

If you live on Dearborn, what do you actually want to happen here? We are curious whether the comments split the way we think they will.

Source credit: CBS Chicago, with earlier reporting from Block Club Chicago.

The Company That Closed X-Sport Gym Is Finally Opening a Nicer One in the Same Space

819 S. State, the 2nd floor gym space with an entrance at the base of the condo building (seen in the picture) is going to be a gym again.

Club Studio is moving in. What Now Chicago found the listing, and Mr. South Loop, who has had his eye on that storefront since last fall, says the same thing. Construction has started. No opening date yet.

Here is the part that got us. Club Studio is a Fitness International brand, and Fitness International owns LA Fitness. XSport had that space for years and closed not long after its chain got folded into LA Fitness. So by a circuitous route, the company that emptied the space is the company filling it back up, this time with a Pilates reformer studio, cryotherapy and cardio trampolines.

We are not complaining. That is a big dark retail space on a block that needs people walking past it.

Source credit: Reporting from What Now Chicago and Mr. South Loop.

Three Belugas Have Died at the Shedd in Two Weeks

As a follow-up from our post last week, it's sad to say that three beluga whales have died at the Shedd in about two weeks, and two of them died on the same day.

Rain, a 20 year old female who came down from Marineland in Canada in mid August, and Beethoven, a 34 year old male from the Shedd's own resident pod, both died Wednesday. Peekachu, 23, also a Marineland rescue, died about a week before that.

If you have not been following: Marineland shut down, and ten of its belugas were moved here across three trips, the last one on September 1. The Shedd says it will take time to get concrete answers about what led to the deaths, and that it is watching the rest of the pod around the clock.

Not everybody is willing to wait for the answers. Lori Marino of the Whale Sanctuary Project called the three deaths shocking and horrifying.

Here is a video from NBC 5 Chicago on the topic:

Source credit: Reporting from CBS Chicago, NBC 5 Chicago and the Chicago Sun-Times.

The City Just Told Reserv (744 S. Dearborn) to Stop

Block Club Chicago reported Tuesday that the city has hit Reserv, the sports bar at 744 S. Dearborn, with a cease-and-desist order, and that a license hearing has been set. Per Block Club, the order came after another large fight at the bar.

If you live on that stretch of Dearborn, none of this is news to you. Back in July the Sun-Times reported Reserv was facing eviction over roughly $45,800 in unpaid rent going back to March, with former bartenders and servers saying they were owed wages. CBS Chicago was out on the corner of Dearborn and Polk later that month, where neighbors said the music ran until 2am and the place felt less like a neighborhood spot and more like a club. Owner Gerald Joseph told CBS it was his dream project, and that he was doing everything he could to be a friendly neighbor.

A cease-and-desist is a different weight class than a noise complaint.

We are not rooting for another dark storefront at Dearborn and Polk. Printers Row has enough of those. We are also not the ones trying to sleep above it.

If you are on that block: has it actually gotten quieter, or is this the first you are hearing about any of it?

Source credit: Block Club Chicago on the cease-and-desist order. Earlier reporting from the Chicago Sun-Times and CBS Chicago.

Both Illinois Senators Now Want Answers About the Proposed 14th Street Rail Yard Move from South Loop to Bridgeport

The 14th Street rail yard story keeps not being about the 14th Street rail yard.

Quick recap. Amtrak wants to move its maintenance operation off the 47 acres along the river near 14th, which is the land Justin Ishbia has been circling for a (rumored) ballpark. The replacement would go up in Bridgeport, on Canal between 33rd and 35th: four stories, running 24 hours, roughly $900 million, with about $600 million of federal money behind it. The developer is Canal Edge LLC. That is Ishbia too.

This week Bridgeport neighbors pushed back hard. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth asked the Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak to actually explain the thing to the people who will live next to it. Ald. Nicole Lee said the speed of it is a thousand percent alarming.

Worth remembering on our side of the river: none of our 47 acres clear until theirs does.

CBS Chicago and NBC 5 both have the details:

Is this a fair trade? Tell us in the comments.